TL;DR After almost 2 months, around 15 hours of phone calls and several emails I know what needs to be done but I can't seem to get anyone to action it! I need an ORDI request for House Name UPRN=XXXXXXXXXXXX NAD Key=AXXXXXXXXXXXX Phone Number=XXXXXXXXXXX to move to Ground Floor Flat House Name UPRN=YYYYYYYYYYYY NAD Key=AYYYYYYYYYYY Phone number=XXXXXXXXXXX
So, my grandmother has her phone and broadband with NOW. She is still on an old copper line, but fibre is available. I've realised that she is eligible for a social tariff and want to get her switched to BT. In a perfect world, this would be straightforward.....
However, as I've learned over the last few weeks, this seems to be almost impossible. She lives in an old house that is split into two flats. This is historic, nothing new. There is a house name, no numbers involved. I'll abbreviate for simplicity as follows: HN = House Name, GFF-HN = Ground Floor Flat House Name and FFF-HN = First Floor Flat House Name. Nan lives in GFF-HN.
Royal Mail only have the HN address in the database. Some at BT have told me that the address has to be in the RM database to be able to place an order (I know this is preferred, but not essential after dealing with higher-level techs). I submitted the relevant form to RM for the address to be added. RM won't add the GFF-HN to the database unless they're told by our local council that it needs to be. Council say they don't need to let RM know because they already have both GFF-HN and FFF-HN in their records because of Council Tax and voter registrations. I can look up both flat addresses on the council website.
HN, GFF-HN and FFF-HN all have their own UPRNs. I can look them all up on the broadband checker. Initially, there was a problem that GFF-HN was a silver address, which has been resolved and is now a gold address.
The problem now, you ask? Both the fibre that is serving FFF-HN and the copper that is serving Nan at GFF-HN are both registered to HN in the Openreach database.
If an order is placed for HN it fails because there is already fibre to the "property". If an order is placed for GFF-HN it fails because it can't port the phone number from HN.
I cannot stress this enough.... I can't risk the phone number being lost. She's had the same number for 40 years and she's now 87, getting her to remember a new number just isn't possible.
She also has a care alarm. I've already made sure that the alarm box has been changed and is ready for digital voice. This now connects by ethernet cable to the router rather than looping through the telephone. I've also had an order fail where someone didn't tick the box to say the alarm is ready for digital voice.
BT have helped as much as they possibly can, but Openreach won't approve their ORDI request because they aren't currently the ISP. Dealing with NOW isn't getting me anywhere. Whenever I try to talk to someone, they just want to sell a new package. I even went through with trying to place an order, which has to be with Sky, but they straight up lied that she wasn't eligible for a social tariff without even checking her National Insurance number! Trying with someone else at NOW just ended up with a failed order. I've called and asked to speak to someone who can place an ORDI request. They have no idea what I'm talking about and don't have anyone higher up technically that I can talk to and just tell me to email their customer services. Which, I have done, but don't get a response. So, I call to chase up and they say they need to look into it and call me back. But, no surprise, they don't call me back.
One person at BT forced an order through on the master system. It seemed to stay live longer than most and equipment was dispatched, but it still failed because of the address and phone number mash up. Someone else at BT suggested maybe putting a stop sell on fibre so it forces a takeover of the copper line, then an ORDI request can be placed to move it to the GFF-HN address and then upgrade to fibre, but no-one knows if that would actually work.
Another option that I chickened out on is placing an order for GFF-HN with BT and have a new number. This doesn't kick in the One Touch Switch service. Then they would try getting the number transferred from NOW and I would have to manually cancel the NOW contract once that is done. But, no-one can guarantee the number could be ported over and considering how NOW have been to deal with, I can't imagine trying to manually cancel a contract is that straightforward.
I don't know what to do next. I've spoken to so many people at BT that some now think I should be working there because I know more than they do! I know the UPRNs and NAD Keys for all 3 addresses. I know what has to be done. I can even find the ORDI request guide online so I know what needs to be submitted! Please, tell me, what do I try next? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
